Malakai Lolo Mohu pleads guilty to aggravated break and enter at Bar Beach unit following argument

Holding a “little burner thing” a man has admitted he and two others stormed a Newcastle unit following a heated argument about opals.

Mohu pleaded guilty at Newcastle Local Court on Wednesday. Picture: Amy Ziniak

A man has admitted he stormed a Newcastle unit with two others and threatened the man inside before ransacking the place after a heated argument over selling opals.

In Newcastle Local Court on Wednesday, Malakai Lolo Mohu, 21, pleaded guilty to aggravated break and enter following the incident at the Bar Beach unit on August 5 last year.

Court documents revealed a week prior a co-accused had spoken to the occupant of the unit about some opals he wanted to sell because his father owned a opal mine at Lightning Ridge, but that he was having trouble selling them

Police facts said the man then claimed he had a mate with a mining license in Queensland that could sell them before 50 opals were handed over.

But a week later, court documents detailed the pair had an argument over selling them with claims he was “robbed” before the group of men turned up at the unit the following morning.

50 opals (like inset) were handed to the man to sell.

Police facts said the group claimed they “just wanted to talk” but one man was armed with a hammer while Mohu was holding “a little burner thing”.

Police facts said one of the men yelled, “if you don’t get the opals back tonight your going to get a gun to your head”, before the man replied, “I don’t have them, my mate still has them”.

Court documents said while the man sat on the lounge, with his girlfriend also in the home at the time, the men walked around and started to ransack the unit.

But at one point the man was able to escape and ran out the front door with his partner before calling police.

A crime scene was established when officers arrived where a number of kitchen cupboards were left open and several items of clothing and boxes were strewn on the bed and floor.

Mohu was later arrested on October 15 when police saw him standing at an intersection at The Junction and in a later interview he said he had remembered going to the unit to retrieve stolen opals, according to police facts.

Mohu was found to be criminally responsible as part of a joint criminal enterprise.

Mohu also pleaded guilty to another unrelated charge, assault with intent to rob in company, referring to an October incident at Cooks Hill where he stole a Chevrolet Silverado and keys.

The 21-year-old will head to the District Court next month for a sentence date to be set.